Metabolomic Analysis of Urine from Rats Chronically Dosed with Acrylamide Using NMR and LC/MS

摘要

A subchronic exposure to relatively high levels of AA through drinking water caused rats to experience significant weight loss, impaired locomotor activity, and abnormalities in their testicular histopathology. The detection of AA metabolites combined with the taurine levels in urine suggested that the glutathione biosynthesis pathway could be disturbed. The increase in creatine may be related to testicular toxicity and/or the GSH biosynthesis pathway and/or catabolism of muscle proteins. A steady increase in amino acids may be indicative of protein catabolism in the muscle to help replenish some of the citric acid metabolites that decrease in the second week of dosing. As such, alterations of amino acids and metabolites involved in the citric acid cycle pathway suggested that AA probably disrupted energy metabolic pathways. This study showed that the combination of MS- and NMR-based metabolomics analyses of urine samples could provide complementary data to elucidate physiological changes of AA-induced toxicity.